Second Captains

Yesterday, at 3.27 pm local time, a statement from a Sao Paulo hospital confirmed the death of the great Pele, “our dear King of Football”. 

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pele to the footballing world, is considered one of the greatest players to ever play the game. Aside from scoring over 1200 career goals, he also was seen as one of the great innovators in football, with many tricks and skill moves we commonly see today being attributed to his creation. As Erling Haaland put it so succinctly, “Everything you see any player doing, Pelé did it first. RIP”. 

In tribute to the great man, we’ve chosen to revisit a chat between Ken & Tim Vickery from last year about the Pele documentary on Netflix, discussing the life of Brazil’s finest player and where he fits into the conversation of the all time greats.

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Amid the joy and celebrations after the Irish women's team qualified for the World Cup, a now infamous video from the team’s dressing room involving a republican song went viral and the subsequent controversy surrounding it seemed to almost immediately overshadow the achievement itself. 

The reaction to the song then gave way to a much broader debate about nationalism and its place in Irish sport and Irish life.

With that in mind we asked Una Mullally of the Irish Times and former Republic of Ireland Manager Brian Kerr to join us live in Liberty Hall Theatre to reflect on the video, the reaction to the video, and the conversation the country needs to have about border polls, nationalism and where we want to be in 10 years time.

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It’s never a true Gang’s All Here week without the charisma & enthusiasm of everybody’s favourite West Coast sports radio powerhouse, US Murph. Having just touched down on Irish soil, he was expecting a relaxing few days of conversation and merriment but instead was greeted with word that the biggest Baseball story of the year was breaking back home.

We get the lowdown on how he had to cover the news from the warm embrace of Fallon’s Pub in Dublin City, how it feels to be back with us for the first time since the heady days of 2019, as well as a rundown on his Top Three US sport stories of the year. 

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At the start of December Ulster were 22-3 up against Leinster and cruising against 14 men, but fell apart and lost the game 38-29. Then the following week they lost 39-0 to Sale, and this weekend were losing 29-0 at half time to La Rochelle, before a 29 point comeback secured them a losing bonus point and a 4 try bonus point.

We ask former Ulster and Ireland centre Darren Cave to explain Ulster's mental state, both now and historically.

Gerry Thornley is in studio to look at what has gone wrong and right for the province and if coach Dan McFarland and CEO Jonny Petrie were right to go public on their frustrations with the EPCR for not allowing the game be played in Belfast, rather than an empty Lansdowne Road.

Plus there's ROG's facial expressions at the final whistle, Munster's renewed appetite for battles and tackles and we crowbar a mention of Puma legend Hugo Porta into the chat.

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Lionel Messi and Argentina have won the World Cup, and in a fashion so outrageous that no one watching will ever forget it. 

Tim Vickery and Philippe Auclair give Argentina their due while puzzling over the paucity of the French challenge for 80 minutes. 

And Ken Early, the Lion of Lusail, joins us one more time, mere hours before his flight home to talk us through the almost unbearable tension of normal time, injury time, extra-time, and injury time in extra-time, before penalties secured Messi’s legacy forever.

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Welcome to the Second Captains World Service taster show.

Join us for ad-free, contract-free, member-led broadcasting for just €5 + VAT a month at secondcaptains.com/join.

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As the World Cup in Qatar has taken the majority of our attention over the last few weeks, the rugby wheel has kept on turning. 

We chat to Shane Horgan about Munster's progress but also basic errors made against Toulouse in the fog in a packed-out Thomond Park. Is the game plan starting to come together, and do they have the players for said game plan? 

Elsewhere, Leinster & Ulster experienced very different results with the former strolling to an impressive away win over Racing 92, while Ulster seemed to concede every type of try imaginable as they were thumped 39-0 by Sale.  

Plus there's Eddie Jones being relieved of his role as England Coach, the return of Warrenball, ROG committing his future to La Rochelle and the GAA making the ballsy decision to go toe to toe with the World Cup Final.

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Welcome to our bonus Sunday World Cup pod after four of the most dramatic quarter-finals in the competition’s history.

We chat with Tim Vickery about the scenes between Argentina and The Netherlands, Brazil’s limp exit and some of the strange refereeing performances over the last few days.

We pay tribute to the life and career of American writer and broadcaster Grant Wahl who sadly passed away in Qatar while working on the Argentina game.

Plus there’s Ronaldo’s tears, Rue Giroud, England’s missed opportunity, big Wout, Moroccan magic, Messi’s moment.

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England and France dealt with Poland and Senegal with the minimum of fuss today, but how will they handle each other?  

Ken got his first look at England in the flesh at this tournament, and he was suitably impressed with Jude Bellingham… but has Kyle Walker got what it takes to stop Kylian Mbappé? 

We talk to friend of the show Philippe Auclair about Mbappé's red-hot form, and about Giroud, now France’s record goal-scorer.

And we discuss Messi's one man band, how much Louis van Gaal is loving life at the moment, and why Declan Rice can safely return to Ireland now that he’s just a middle-aisle Jude Bellingham.

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It’s the end of the World Cup group phase and after another day of chaos and disorder we have Luis Suarez in tears, South Korea triumphant and Granit Xhaka sealing his reputation as an Ulster senior football championship-level shithouse.

Ken was at both the Uruguay Ghana and Switzerland Serbia games yesterday and he tells us how gleefully Ghana celebrated their own demise when faced with the image of a weeping Suarez and just why Serbia limped so pathetically out of the World Cup.  

Plus there’s Uruguay’s valid VAR complaints, South Korea’s deserved progression and another relaxed evening of football with Argentina.

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